Monthly Archives: March 2013

It’s not really crafty, but I had some fun with the new(ish) nail polish strips not too long ago, and I thought I’d share it here…

I chose a HIGHLY patterned style- Tattoo Much – which was probably a good thing, as it seemed to disguise mistakes better than I think a more subdued pattern would.

Tattoo Much

The steps are included in the package – basically:

clean your nails (start with unpolished nails) and prep your nails by filing and smoothing with the enclosed tool. They also recommend pushing back your cuticles.

open the package, select the right sizes for each of your nails for one hand

remove the clear top plastic, remove the backing paper, remove the tab

align the strip on the nail, and slowly and gently pull and smooth the strip down the centre of the nail

smooth down the strip, and wrap the tip, breaking off the excess polish strip

smooth down the edges to better adhere them with the enclosed tool

file off the excess polish

I then used the buffing tool to further buff the nail polish (with the hopes it would adhere well) and added two coats of clear top coat.

The claim

The proposed benefits of these strips is that you ‘don’t have to wait for your polish to dry’ – which is accurate… but applying the strips is in NO way quick and easy. It was a bit finicky to get started, and I still ended up putting on the clear coat – so still had to wait for drying time…

Another benefit is the chance to have highly decorated nails, without the time or skill to really paint. This is entirely accurate – there is no way I would spend the amount of time needed to actually draw hearts, flowers, stars, swallows, text, etc on my nails.

Tattoo Much

The result

The finished product was good – but there were a few areas where the polish chipped (or more accurately, peeled off) while trying to apply it. Most of these were on the edges, despite my attentiveness to these areas.

The polish was super shiny, which I liked, and the polish lasted for 5 days (including a LOT of hand-washing, and a few encounters with masking tape which would normally peel off regular polish). On the 5th day I could see a few of the edges starting to pull up, so I removed the polish. There isn’t any way to ‘push’ the polish back down again. Other than the pulling up – the polish was in exactly the same condition as when I applied it – there was no further chipping or peeling.

Tattoo Much

The pros

Getting the highly decorated look is a big pro – if you like decorated nails.

The result is super shiny, which is awesome!

Fairly long-lasting, and the tips didn’t seem to wear down as easily as regular polish.

I read a few comments online that packs of 16 seems wasteful – as someone with large hands, I appreciate the variety of sizes, and didn’t see this as a con at all.

The enclosed tools are useful.

The cons

The strips need to be used immediately or they’ll dry out before you can use them. If you’re trying to do this in little sets of time – do one hand at a time.

Cost – For the price of one package, I could get a bottle of decent nail polish. With the package of Salon Effects, I get one application – but with a bottle of polish I get many applications. I wouldn’t bother getting the strips in a plain colour or simple pattern because if this – it just wouldn’t be cost-effective.

Touch-ups are impossible. If I get a small chip or my tips wear off when I wear polish, it’s reasonably easy to touch the polish up – with these strips that is impossible. Another reason why a highly decorated pattern is good…

If the shape isn’t perfect, there are gaps – this doesn’t happen with regular polish, and is kind of annoying.

A few months ago, while browsing Etsy, I really liked some of the spike bead/charms ( I was looking for something similar…) and thought about ordering some, but ended up passing it by for the time being. Shortly after that I was in Michael’s Craft store and found the new (and apparently short-lived, since I haven’t seen much of it since) Legendsline from Bead Landing.

“The Bead Landing™ Legends™ collection is all about rock glam. Come on all you cherry bombs, schools out for summer and it’s time to rock. You’ll find so many great chains, pendants, charms, and embellishments to create the most epic creations ever.” – Michael’s

spiked bracelet

There were a few interesting pieces in the collection, but the only thing I picked up was the chain with those spike bead/charms on it. I bought three cards, and deconstructed one of them to extend the length and add spikes to the other two chains. I shortened one of the spike-decorated chains, and then attached the two together, then adding some of the leftover chain to the ends, and finishing them with a toggle clasp. (Which isn’t a perfect match, but works at least for the time being.) I might wear it for a while, and embellish it a little more later if I think it still needs something….

In February I was in Toronto (a 3,400 km trip to see Finnish Battle Metal giants Turisasalong with Firewind and Stolen Babies) and on my last day in Toronto I had the chance to walk along Queen Street in the Fashion District and look at fabric and bead shops. I could have spent hours in the fabric stores if I had more time (and an empty suitcase..) but since I was also with a non-sewing friend, it was harder to spend the time I would have liked. However, the bead stores were fair game for both of us, and we popped into a number of different places.